A man attempting to cross a Bronx expressway was fatally struck by an off-duty livery cab driver early Tuesday, officials said.
The fatality comes as cops are investigating a string of recent fatal crashes involving people struck trying to cross city highways on foot.
The victim was crossing southbound lanes of the Major Deegan Expressway near Tremont Ave. in the South Bronx when the cab driver crashed into him about 2:30 a.m., cops said.
The victim died at the scene. Cops were trying to identify him Tuesday.
The 65-year-old off-duty cabbie remained at the scene. No charges were immediately filed.
Cops were trying to determine why the victim was crossing the Bronx highway. The Major Deegan’s southbound lanes were closed for several hours during the investigation.
On May 19, a marked NYPD squad car fatally struck a man crossing the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens.
The officers were responding to a 911 call and had activated the vehicle’s lights and sirens when they hit the 23-year-old victim near Liberty Ave. in Jamaica about 4:30 a.m., officials said.
Last November and December, there were two incidents in which people were fatally struck crossing Bronx highways and service roads. In one of the incidents, the collision was so traumatic the victim’s body was torn to pieces, police said.
In 2021 and 2022, 16 people died trying to walk across a highway, parkway or expressway, cops said. More recent statistics were not readily available.
The NYPD and the city Department of Transportation have been working together to combat such crashes, which they believe stems from some combination of homelessness, intoxication and mental illness.
“We brought in [the city] Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Homeless Services and EMS,” former NYPD Chief of Transportation Kim Royster said at a forum last year. “We wanted to bring this particular issue to their awareness but also to ask them, ‘Is there something you’re seeing that we should be aware of? That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
